One's Greatest Enemies
by kyleoo145
Summary: Naruto has decided that he wants to help others. To accomplish this he will take on the strongest opponents, make the stupidest decisions and make the most enemies. But when it comes down to it, will he just end up on the run with Konoha, his lost family, and of course Akatsuki after him? Harem Naruto/FemKyuubi/Anko/FemHaku plus more later


I don't own Naruto

"Normal people talk"

"**Demon/Summon talk**"

'Normal people thoughts'

'**Demon/Summon Thoughts**'

_Flashbacks_

AN: Just to clarify. Naruto is physically and mentally 18, though he is technically only 12. More details on his past will come later. Also, the Third Hokage never gave him the last name of Uzumaki, he is simply Naruto.

Chapter 1

Twelve years. He had waited twelve years to come out as who he really was. Now, with his first mission outside of the village, Naruto felt it was time to show them all what he was really capable of and ultimately leave.

"**Is my little fox coming out to play?**"

'You bet he is Natsumi-chan. Time to turn all those bastards' worlds upside down.'

"**Yay, I can't wait to see how they act when they see their little 'demon brat' isn't as stupid and weak as they think.**"

And with that Naruto walked out of his apartment and into the world.

At the front gate, Team Seven and Tazuna were waiting for the last member of their group before they could leave for Wave Country.

"Where is the dope?" Asked Sasuke.

"We don't need him. We can do this all on our own, right Sasuke-kun?" Piped up Sakura. But she the only response she got was a, "Hn" from the brooding avenger.

"Though you are probably right, we could do this without Naruto, we are a team. We will wait and he will be punished appropriately for his tardiness." Kakashi added from behind his little orange book, though he failed to realize the irony in what he just said.

"Ooh, what edition is that?" Tazuna asked.

"Icha Icha: Paradise Vol. 7. It's my personal favorite." Kakashi responded in his normal bored drawl.

Before Tazuna had a chance to continue the conversation, the group was approached by a new figure. He was dressed in all black from head to toe. He wore combat boots, cargo pants, a mesh shirt, that showed off his well built body, with a black trench coat that was left open in the middle. A black mask covered the lower part of his face in the same fashion as Kakashi and over his eyes was a pair of gold aviator glasses with bright blue reflective lenses. The man stood at a full six feet tall and had sun kissed blond hair that was held back from falling onto his face by his leaf Hitai-ate.

When the new person was right in front of the group, he spoke, "Are he ready to go Kakashi-sensei?" When Team seven heard the voice they all stiffened as it was undeniably the voice of their annoying blond teammate, but different. It was deeper and more mature sounding.

"Naruto is that you?" Sakura asked.

"Of course it's me." Naruto replied with a hit of annoyance evident in his voice.

"Why are you trying to looks so cool? You should stop pretending, we all no you are a loser! Right Sasuke-kun?" Sakura yelled, but her voice softened as she said the last part.

"Hn, for once I agree with her, you should stop acting dope." Sasuke replied with his usual arrogant smirk on his face.

"Ok ok, quiet all of you. In case you have forgotten we have a mission to do so lets get going." Kakashi stated, even though he was quite curious about his obnoxious students sudden change in appearance.

And with that they started marching off. At every opportunity she got Sakura sent an insult at Naruto as they walked along, and much to everyone's surprise, the blond didn't respond in the slightest. He hardly twitched, though that seemed to be due to her loud tone and not the actual words coming out of her mouth. An hour later she finally let up on the insults, much to the pleasure of the rest of the group. Even Sasuke was at the point where he was about to yell at her to be quiet.

But unfortunately for them all, her yelling was exchanged for asking questions, which much to the ire of Kakashi and Tazuna were directed at them. Kakashi just gave one words answers before returning his attention to his books, while Tazuna took out a bottle of sake and began drinking. After she finally got the message that they didn't want to talk to her, she resolved to stave off boredom by pestering Sasuke about dating her.

Night was slowly approaching, the group pulled over into a small clearing on the side of the road. "Sasuke, start a fire. Sakura, find some water. Naruto, set up the tents." Kakashi order, before he himself sat down against a tree to leave all the work to his genin. Tazuna sat down as well and was quite content with just watching the camp come together. Unfortunately for the two adults, Sakura wasn't in the mood to let them just sit around.

"Kakashi-sensei, can't you help us get everything set up. It would go a lot quicker and-" She began, but was promptly stopped.

"I could help Sakura, but you all need to practice, so I will simply supervise, now go get some water." Kakashi said.

"Psh, you are just going to read that damn book of yours not supervising. Why don't you actually teach us something instead of just sitting their." Sakura shouted at the lazy man.

"I would teach you something, but we can't do that until the camp is set up, so if you want to learn anything you should get the damn water and then help get dinner ready. Then and only then will I think about teaching you anything." Kakashi spoke up with a clear harsh tone. The bubblegum haired girl just huffed and walked off to complete her task. 'Why cant they just listen every once in a while. And with such simple tasks as well. She doesn't even really want to train. She just wants to watch Sasuke.' Kakashi thought to himself with a exasperated sigh. Looking up from his book for a moment, the jonin observed his subordinates performing there duties.

Sasuke was using one of the many fire jutsus that Kakashi had taught him to start a fairly large fire of twigs and leaves. There were two Narutos…

With that Kakashi's attention was completely off his book and on his blond student. One of the Narutos was setting up the tents while the other was reading some sort of book while lying on a low hanging tree branch. 'How the heck does he know a jutsu that creates a solid clone? I guess this is a good opportunity to find out about his sudden change in appearance and attitude as well.' He thought to himself.

Picking himself up, and pocketing his book, much to the surprise of Sasuke, who was now reading a scroll on an Uchiha fire jutsu. The avenger knew that in a situation like this, if Kakashi put his book away then something serious was about to happen. Putting down his own scroll, Sasuke turned to watch what was about to go down between his sensei and the dope when he noticed that there were actually two dopes. One doing work while the other was just lazing around reading.

Kakashi walked up to the blond in the tree and observed him for a second, when he saw what the book was that he was reading, his one visible eye went wide. "Can I help you sensei?" Naruto asked with out taking his eyes off of his book.

"Yes I have some questions for you." Kakashi responded with a wave of his hand.

"Ok shoot, I may not answer them all though." Naruto answered.

"Well first off what is the clone you are using." Kakashi asked.

"Kage Bunshin no justsu." Came the quick reply from the blond.

At this Kakashi's eye narrowed, "And how is it that you learned that technique. It is Jonin level and a forbidden technique." This caused Sasuke's eyes to widen.

'How could that dope know such a high level move. He couldn't even do the normal Bunshin.' Sasuke thought to himself.

"What you think that you are the only jonin that was training an academy student. I learned it from one of my other senseis." To which Kakashi's eyes widened.

"And who were your other teachers, and what could you have possibly learned. I read the report on you and you were the dead last in the academy. If you could do something like this then why didn't you try. Going even further, why is it that when we got our first real mission you completely change your attitude and dress?" the cyclops jonin asked in a very serious tone.

"First I won't be giving up my teachers. Second I learned plenty. And to answer everything else I will say one thing, 'A shinobi's greatest tool is deception.'" Naruto spoke in a very neutral tone.

This completely shocked Kakashi. 'So everything up to this point has been fake? How the heck did he come up with all that? Is he being influenced by the Kyubi? Damn, so many questions.' "Ok then why didn't you show your true self when we were doing the bell test. You could have failed and gone back to the academy."

"That's an easy question to answer. I knew for a fact that all genin teams are three man cells plus a jonin, so I knew that it was either all of us or none of us. Going on, since I knew that you weren't going to fail Sasuke, I didn't have to try at all since we were going to pass no matter what."

"Well then what are you capable of?" Kakashi asked with a hint of anger in his voice.

"You'll just have to see won't you." Naruto relied with a smirk.

"Find then I order you to tell me what you can do. If we end up in a combat situation I am going to need to know what you are capable of so that I can properly give tasks and create battle strategies and tactics." Kakashi stated quite harshly.

"Fine, Fine. How about this. I'll have a fight with Sasuke and you can evaluate both of our abilities." Naruto stated.

"Huh, need me to kick his ass Kakashi?" Sasuke made his presence known.

"That's fine with me." Kakashi said, "Lets go." And with that both boys followed their sensei over to the other side of the clearing. They were followed by a bored Tazuna who was curious as to what these two's abilities were and by Sakura who had just gotten back, having refilled all of there canteens at a near by river.

Naruto and Sasuke both took their places in the center facing each other. "HEY DOPE. Take those glasses off. I want to see your eyes when I beat you." Sasuke said as he activated his two-tomoe sharingan.

"Not happening. I know that a lot of your sharingan's genjutsus rely on eye contact. I won't give you that advantage." Naruto stated calmly. Though the statement stunned Kakashi and Sasuke, as information like that isn't very common knowledge.

"How did you know that dope!?" Sasuke roared.

"That doesn't matter, Kakashi-sensei begin the fight." Naruto said.

"Very well, begin." Kakashi stated, before lifting his own Hitai-ate revealing his own sharingan.

With the fight started, Sasuke burst forward at speeds that would put most chunin to shame. And like that he was upon Naruto in the blink of an eye. 'This fight is over.' Thought Kakashi proudly as he saw his prized student approach his blond student at speed that he couldn't match, right?

With his sharingan blazing, Sasuke began dishing out punches and kicks left and right with no particular style or focus. He simply didn't expect Naruto to be able to stop him and allowed himself to be sloppy. Much to everyone's surprise Naruto weaved in and out of all the blows. A surprised Sasuke's movements hitched for but a moment, which cost him, as a single punch came in and connected with his stomach sending him across the clearing and into a tree.

"Sasuke-kun!" screamed a frantic Sakura. "Naruto, you baka, you hurt him."

"Shut up you banshee!" came a cry from Sasuke. "The dope just got lucky." He stated and picked himself up.

Meanwhile Kakashi was slightly worried for his prized student. 'That was no lucky shot, it was well placed and far to powerful for a genin. Even Sasuke can't hit that hard yet. And even though all of Sasuke's attacks were sloppy, based on what I got in Naruto's file, it still should have been enough to hit him at least a few times, Naruto's movements were all fluid, though I don't recognize any form or style. It was almost as if he was just moving with the flow of his opponent, but for that you would need incredibly advanced sense or some sort of dojutsu. Yet I couldn't predict any of it with my sharingan. It was almost natural. What are you hiding Naruto.' "Sasuke take off your weights and Naruto take off your glasses."

"Yes sensei." Came the responses from both boys. Sasuke sat down and proceeded to take off a set of weights that were on his legs and arms, while Naruto took off his glasses and placed then in his trench coat. Much to Kakashi's surprise, Naruto had his eyes closed.

"Ha, you don't have a chance now dope. That was a hundred and fifty pounds I just took off. There is no way you will be able to keep up with me now. And open your eyes, or this is going to be really short." Sasuke bragged.

"Just come on Sasuke and lets get this over with." Naruto stated calmly.

With a simple "Hn" Sasuke complied and entered his family taijustsu style.

'Hmm, so he's going with the Interceptor fist. That should be enough to beat Naruto, though I have no idea what that boy is truly capable of.' Kakashi thought.

Dashing forward again, but this time at much greater speed, Sasuke attempted to a round house kick, to which Naruto just leaned back to avoid.

'So he can stick to things using chakra, else he would have fallen over. But how did he know that Sasuke was there his eyes are still closed.' Kakashi observed.

Following up Sasuke dropped down and attempted to sweep Naruto off his feet with another kick, but Naruto simple jumped back. Charging forward once Sasuke went through a series of well coordinated punches, but even with his Sharingan, he was unable to land any blows. When Sasuke sent one last blow to Naruto's head, the blond boy merely caught his hand, "Is that all you're got Sasuke? I'm disappointed." Naruto taunted.

"Shut up dope and fight me seriously!" Sasuke yelled and yanked his hand out of Naruto's grip before jumping back.

"Very well, but remember you asked for it." Naruto replied and before Sasuke could react, Naruto burst forward and launched his own attack. He was going so fast that the only reason Sasuke was able to even see any of his movements was thanks to his Sharingan. Mean while to Sakura and Tazuna, it seemed as if the blond had just disappeared, though being far more experienced, Kakashi was able to track his movements even without the enhanced vision of his Sharingan.

'This is crazy. He's as fast as me!' Kakashi thought.

Even though Sasuke was able to see Naruto coming, that didn't mean that he was able to move fast enough to actually dodge or block any of the blows that began to rain down on him.

Kakashi was in shock, as he was startled by the speed that Naruto was showing. It shouldn't be possible for a person of his age to have hidden the kind of training for this kind of speed.

After finishing a long combo of hits, Naruto delivered one final spin kick to the side of Sasuke's head that again sent the avenger into the trees. After which Naruto went back to where he had been standing earlier before the fight began.

"Naruto where did you train with to acquire that kind of speed?" Kakashi asked with genuine curiosity in his voice.

"I trained up with a certain eternal rival." Naruto replied with a smirk when he saw Kakashi go wide eyed. But before Kakashi was able to respond, the sound of chirping birds was heard and a glowing blue light was seen coming from where Sasuke had disappeared into. As they all watched, Sasuke came bursting out of the tree line. His right arm was back and his hand was giving of a large amount of electricity.

Kakashi was about to step as he felt that this was going to far , but noticed Naruto wave a hand at him. Begrudged Kakashi stepped down, but was slightly worried. If Naruto wasn't worried about such a high level technique then that mean he must have a counter, but that meant he could end up hurting Sasuke.

As they all watched, Sasuke approached Naruto, who stood stock still, while watching Sasuke approach. When Sasuke was upon him, the avenger thruster his arm forwards straight through Naruto's chest and cried out "Chidori."

Much to everyone's worry, Naruto let the attack go right through his chest. "Ha, take that dope, not so gre-" Sasuke began bragging, but before he could finish Naruto said a single word.

"Boom." And like that, Sasuke's world went completely white. For the others watching, they observed as Naruto literally exploded in a small show of fire and heat. Sasuke was blown back into the trees for the third time during the fight between him and Naruto. When the smoke cleared, the observers watched as Naruto walked out of the tree line with his glasses back on and strolled over to where Sasuke was. "I win." He stated in a matter-a-fact tone.

The others all rushed over as Naruto began walking back over to the camp. As they all crowded around, they were greeted by an unconscious Sasuke. The brooding boy's clothes were singe and his body was cover in already visible bruises from the taijutsu contest at the first half of the fight.

"Kakashi-sensei, how could you let Naruto-baka do this to Sasuke-kun. You have to punish him for doing this." Sakura cried out in her normal high piecing screechy tone.

"(Sigh) Sakura, Sasuke used an A-rank assassination jutsu that is used to kill people against Naruto. That move that Naruto used to counter it is normally much more powerful. I believe that Naruto was holding back throughout the entire fight and could have killed Sasuke in an instant." Kakashi relied as he began tending to his prized students wounds.

"But sensei, Naruto-baka could have kill Sasuke-kun!" Sakura continued.

"But he didn't, when he obviously could have. Now just shut up and help me tend to his wounds." Ordered Kakashi.

While they were doing that, Naruto had returned to his comfy position on his tree branch, but instead of reading he was now conversing with Natsumi.

'So how'd I do Natsumi-chan.'

"**That was a beautiful display. You showed just enough to satisfy your nosy sensei, but retained enough that you can have plenty of surprises. And you didn't do anything that those two could copy with their cursed eyes. Do you want to come on in here and celebrate?**" Natsumi asked with a little giggle.

'Oh I would love to, but I am probably going to have to talk to Kakashi about the fight he just watched. After that though I don't see anything stopping us from using the rest of the night, Though I would like some to do some sparing first.'

"**You're joking. You would pick sparing over sex? You really aren't normal are you. Most men would kill for the opportunity to even see a women like me in the nude.**"

'Oh come on, you know I think you are absolutely gorgeous.'

"**Gorgeous… that's it?**"

'(Sigh) Drop dead beautiful. An angel fallen from heaven. I shouldn't even be allowed in your presence due to your sheer beauty. It-'

"**(Giggle) I am pretty amazing aren't I.**"

'You're right I would probably die before I could finish complimenting all your perfections.'

"**Why thank you. You sure know how to make a girl feel special Naru-kun.**"

'I try my best.'

"Hey Naruto, I have a few more questions for you." Kakashi's voice penetrated Naruto's conversation with his inner demoniss with his normal nonchalant tone.

"What do you want to know Kakashi?" Asked Naruto, who was annoyed at having his conversation with Natsumi interrupted.

"How much were you holding back?" the one eyed jonin asked in a much more serious manner.

"Lots." Came the simple reply.

"Why have you been hiding your skills for so long." Kakashi asked in the same serious tone.

"(Sigh) What will people view as a bigger threat from the 'demon brat'; if he's weak and an idiot, or if he is strong and smart?" Naruto replied in an equally serious tone. "For all those years there were many people who simply tolerated my existence because I showed no sighs of having any talent in being a shinobi. Since I was a civilian before, any matter that involved me was heavily influenced by the civilian half of the counsel. I had it bad enough without all those extra people coming after me, so I kept that front up for my own protection. Now that I am a shinobi I can show my true colors with far less fear, especially since there are plenty of laws that protect me as such."

Throughout Naruto's explanation, Kakashi's head had slowly been drooping as he understood fully what Naruto was saying. Having been a ANBU not to long ago, Kakashi had been on plenty of the teams that had needed to go and help Naruto from the various attack on his person. "Thank you for that explanation Naruto. I just have one last question. How have you grown so much. You are already six feet tall and your voice is deep, just yesterday you were much shorter and quite squeaky and considering you are only twelve…." He trailed off.

"Due to certain aspects that are unique to me, my growth has been accelerated. This is in large part due to all 'its' chakra that healed my body when I was younger. I went through some pretty… damaging experiences when I was younger and the only reason I survived was because of 'it.'" Naruto explained. "Again to keep suspicion off of me, I was always under a henge."

Kakashi winced at the statement about people harming Naruto, and for a moments though about ending the conversation there, but then he noticed something, "Wait, a henge is just an illusion. There is no way you could have been using a henge all that time."

"(Snort) have you ever met Tsunade Kakashi?" Naruto asked. When he received a nod he continued, "Did you not find it odd that for such an old women she still looks like she is in the prome of her life?"

At this Kakashi's eye widened, "So you know how to perform that henge as well?" he got a nod.

Dropping from the tree, Kakashi went and sat down next to the fire and began going over everything he had learned. Around the campfire there were four tents set up. One for Tazuna, one for Kakashi, one for Sakura, and one for Naruto and Sasuke to share. Kakashi watched as Sakura placed Sasuke's body inside his tent before coming out and sending a glare at Naruto who was reading his book once again, which Kakashi realized that he forgot to ask about. Shaking it off for now, he crawled into his own tent.

Outside, Tazuna and Sakura followed suit, leaving Naruto to himself. Looking up from his book, Naruto looked up through the branches of the tree and at the starry night sky. 'Its so beautiful.' He thought.

"**Yes it is, I wish I could be enjoying it with you.**" Natsumi commented with a hint of sadness.

'So do I Natsumi. Ready for me to come in their?'

"**YAY!**" was the only reply he got. Closing his eyes, Naruto's breathing evened out and as his consciousness drifted into the recesses of his own mind.

When he opened his eyes. Naruto found himself in the middle of a huge forest. The trees were hundreds of feet tall as they reached into the night sky. And though this sky had its own set of stars just like in the real world, Naruto felt that it didn't inspire the same sense of awe that came with gazing upon the real thing. Maybe that was because he knew it wasn't real, maybe his mental creation just wasn't a beautiful as the on in the real world, but whatever it might have been, it just wasn't the same.

Tossing that from his mind, Naruto stood up and began making his way through the forest. The grass swayed under a breeze that wasn't actually there and the chill in the air was completely lost on Naruto, he just didn't get cold, not here, not anywhere.

As he was progressing through the woods, he kept a wary eye out for the one that he was looking for. He had told Natsumi before that he wanted to have a spar before anything else. She always hated it when he placed his 'stupid training ahead of their sex life,' as she put it and was likely to have some sort of ambush waiting for him in order to try and end the competition quickly to get to 'more important things.'

The whole relationship with Natsumi had developed over many years. Naruto had first met her when He was only three years old. At the time she had told him that she was only a figment of his imagination that he had subconsciously created due to his lack of parents. And so that's how he knew her for the next four years. It wasn't until Naruto was seven that he was able to put all the insults that the villagers and shinobi threw at him, his birthday, and Natsumi's presence together. When he confronted her about it she had begun apologizing and crying. Much to her surprise, Naruto was there to comfort her and told her he didn't blame her for anything. And from there they had become friends, with Naruto going to visit her every night, where she would teach him in various subjects.

As the years went by, and Natsumi's chakra began increased Naruto growth rate to the point where by the age of ten, he was already in his mid teens. When this occurred, Naruto found himself looking at the various parts of Nasumi's body quite a bit more. He soon realized that he like her more than just friends. At the same time Natsumi began feeling attracted to him due to the kindness and acceptance he showed to her, and things just went up for the couple from there.

Since Naruto had sworn to find a way to free her from himself so that they could actually spent time together and things could be real for the two of them. Natsumi was a bit skeptical that he could achieve this and had been encouraging his pursuit of other women outside of his mind, and though at first he had flat out said "No" Natsumi was very adamant about him finding happiness even if it wasn't her.

And so here Naruto found himself searching through a forest in his own head to find a demoniss. As he passed through a particular set of trees, he found himself entering a clearing and in the center of which was a very beautiful, women wearing only a black rope necklace with a single large polished orange stone. On the stone was the kanji for seal on it. She stood at five and a half feet tall and had long flowing crimson hair that reached the small of her back. She had her arms wrapped around herself, propping up her amble breast. She had the same whisker marks as Naruto and two red slitted eyes, but in addition she had two pointy orange fox ears. Waving behind her were nine long orange tails that came out of her tail bone.

"(Sigh) So there's going to be no sparring tonight?" Naruto asked, not that he minded that much.

In a flash, she was behind him with her arms around his waist. Stepping up on her tippy toes, she whispered in his ear, "**Is that ok with you dear?**" With one hand she reached up grabbed his aviators and threw them off to the side, revealing his own eyes to be the same red with slits. This was followed by his mask. She them began to rub his whisker marks.

'Damn, she knows that's a sensitive spot for me.' Naruto thought, as he began to purr from the attention that his whisker mark were getting. Though not to be out done, He reached around and with both of his arms and began petting two of her tails to which he was rewarded with her releasing purrs of her own.

Just as he was getting going, Natsumi grabbed his shoulders and spun him around which was followed by she smashing her lips into his. She pressed herself up against her and he felt her large beast pressed against his chest. Reaching behind her, he began massaging her ass with both hands, which elicited a moan from Natsumi, which he took advantage of and brought his tongue into her own mouth and began to explore.

After a minute, both of them pulled away to catch their breath before smirking at each other and going at it.

The next morning, Kakashi came out of his tent to find Naruto cooking a half dozen fish over the fire. Next to the blond boy was a basket of rice ball. 'Who knows where he got those from' The jonin thought to himself. As he went around rousing all the others. After everyone ate, they began their journey to wave again. Sakura occupied herself by trying to talk to Sasuke and insulting Naruto. Sasuke was either challenging Naruto to rematches, or brooding. Kakashi was reading his book. Naruto was talking with Natsumi or reading his own book. And Tazuna was drinking. Both Naruto and Kakashi noticed that the closer they got to their destination, the more worried Tazuna seemed about something and the more he tried to cover it up with alcohol.

On the Fourth day, all the tension that had been building up came to a head. They had just set out from their camp when they passed a puddle in the road. Naruto noticed and looked back at Kakashi, who gave a slight shake of the head. And so they continued without giving any sign that they had noticed anything out of the ordinary.

'Why the heck did he have us go right by them. We could have had an extreme advantage if we had just attacked them there.' Naruto thought.

"**But you don't know what they are after.**" Natsumi relied.

'I doubt they would be just waiting there for anyone else. Anyways, there could be more of them ahead. Leaving a possible enemy at your back isn't a good idea.'

"**I guess, you'll just have to trust cyclops back there to know what he's doing.**"

'hmm' was all the responds Naruto gave.

When the group had gone passed the puddle, it transformed into a pair of shinobi. One was dressed in blue while the other was dressed in gray. Each had a large metal gauntlet one of their hands. The two gauntlets were connected by a shuriken chain. Both had wild black hair that settled below their shoulders and was kept out of their faces by a Kiri Hitai-ate. A single slash through the center of their Hitai-ate showed them as missing-nin.

Charging their first target from behind. They quickly had Kakashi looped up in their shuriken chain. Kakashi got out a bit of a undignifing little yep, which warned the rest of the group of their attackers. The genin of team seven and Tazuna turned around just in time to see the two missing-nin tug on the chain and literally rip Kakashi into a half dozen bloody pieces. "One down. " they spoke before they began rushing their next target… Tazuna.

Before they could get close to the bridge builder the missing-nin closest to the genin received a smashing kick to the side of the head that sent him flying at his partner. Upon colliding, the went rolling to the side of the road in a heap. Various scratches littered their bodies as they had been rolling with the shuriken chain in between them. Recovering quickly from their little dilemma they both looked up in time to see a dozen shuriken become hundreds accompanied by a cry of "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

The two missing-nin both jumped to avoid most of the shuriken. Unfortunately they moved to late to avoid them all and each received a half dozen in their body. The pain from being struck by the sharp projectiles caused them to miss the single blond that was right above them.

"Boom." Was all they heard as they were both sent crashing back to earth and right into a field of shuriken that had imbedded themselves in the ground.

Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, and Tazuna watched as the blond clone exploded in all its glory. All of them realized just how much Naruto had been holding back on the explosion that had taken out Sasuke three nights ago. As that one had produced a small fire ball, this one was absolutely massive, and instead of just leaving the missing-nins' clothes singe, it had burned right through them and had left them with severe burns across their backs.

The group watched as the two came crashing down into the waiting shuriken. As they impacted, they bodies were absolutely turn apart, until they finally came to a rest. Blood was flowing freely from their many wounds and was quickly pooling around their bodies.

The real Naruto walked forward towards the two bodies. Releasing the Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, all but six of the shuriken disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the walkway clear for the blond to approach the downed missing-nin.

Upon reaching the two bodies, Naruto flipped them both over which revealed their mutilated undersides. Behind Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Tazuna all took a quick peak at the condition of the former missing-nin. Upon seeing the torn and cut flesh, sakura and Tazuna both sprinted to the bushed at the side of the road and hurled their breakfast. Sasuke tried to keep a stoic expression, but proved unable to keep from showing the fact that he was at least slightly disturbed by the visible wounds on the bodies of the two shinobi.

"Demon Brothers. B-rank missing-nin from Kiri. Helped in the attempted coup d'etat by the Demon of the Bloody Mist, Momochi Zabuza. How was that analysis Kakashi sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Dope, what the heck are you talking about, Kakashi was killed by those two. It quite path-" Sasuke began , but was cut off.

"What was pathetic was your inaction when under the face of the enemy, Sasuke." Came a voice from the trees. When Sasuke turned around he saw Kakashi walking out of the brush reading his orange book. "That was supposed to be a test for the team to see if you could act with out orders when ambushed by an enemy. You Sasuke didn't even activate your Sharingan. Both you and Sakura failed miserably and if it wasn't for Naruto's action, the client would have been killed and the mission failed. And yes, that was an excellent analysis of those two Naruto. What are you doing?" Kakashi asked as he saw Naruto pull out a kunai. With out answering, Naruto lopped off the heads of both the demon brothers. He then proceeded to take of there gauntlets. Pulling out a scroll, he place all fore mentioned items on a different seal in the scroll and, using a little chakra, sealed them all away and pocketed the scroll that now had a little blood soaked into the paper here and there.

"There heads are worth money Kakashi-sensei. And that is something I am always in need of." Naruto stated as he proceeded to perform a simple fire jutsu that destroyed the bodies.

"But you would have to go to Kiri to collect the bounty, and I don't see you going their anytime soon." Kakashi replied.

"Maybe, but you never know what the day will bring and maybe someday I will be able to turn the heads in, but that is not important right now." Naruto finished.

"Right." Kakashi said as he turned to Tazuna, who still looked a little dazed from seeing the dead bodies. "Tazuna, there is something else going on here, and if you want my team to continue helping in this mission then you are going to have to explain yourself now." The normally laid back jonin said in a rather harsh tone.

Meanwhile, Tazuna was sweating bullets, "Well, you see… there is this guy named Gato-"

"You mean the billionaire shipping magnet?" Kakashi interjected with a wide eye.

"Well ya. You see that whole shipping business is just a front for his seedier activities. In reality his company has a monopoly on all shipping in my home Wave Country. With the help of his goons he has control of Wave Country and is strangling it of all its money and resources. I am building a bridge to the mainland so that we don't need to rely on Gato's shipping company. When Gato found out about this he began sending people to rough up me in hopes of ending my bridge project, but I didn't stop. I was recently in the capitol of Fire Country to acquire a loan to help pay for the construction of the bridge, but with all the expenses I could only afford a C-rank protection mission. I already have debt going through the roof. I need to get the bridge done so that hopeful it will help stir up the economy. I'm sorry for lying to you, but my country needs your help. There are people starving in the streets and children without parents. Can you please finish this mission?"

"Psh, your problems are none of our concern. If you are to weak to do anything about your problems then you don't deserve help." Sneered Sasuke.

"What are you talking about you bastard there are people who need our help. You would deny innocent people that help just because they are weaker than someone else? Kakashi-sensei, I don't care what your opinion on the matter is, I will be going with Tazuna and finish this mission." Naruto proclaiming. It seemed that his sunglasses lens were glowing with the conviction he was speaking with.

"Now hold on just a minute Naruto. We were only paid for a C-rank mission. By the contract that Tazuna signed we hold no responsibility and can drop the mission since it is now beyond our scope. Also you have to look at the rest of the team, they were unable to handle two chunin. The next enemy is most definitely going to be jonin. I'm sorry Naruto, but we aren't equipped for this mission. We will be going back." Kakashi stated firmly.

"Ya, just because you do that to someone," Sakura points to the ashes of the bodies of the demon brothers, "Not all of us are ready for this high of a mission."

"Ya this is probably an A-rank mission now, if anything, it should be handed to a team of jonin if not ANBU. Now Naruto I know you want go and help them, but we can not afford to take it, its to danger-" Kakashi was saying before Naruto began unleashing a very large amount of killer intent. And Kakashi watched in horror as Naruto began emitting red chakra.

"**I said Kakashi that I will be going on this mission no matter your opinion.**" Naruto stated in a demonic voice. The KI(killer intent) and red charka began seeping out of the blond in a much larger flow. "**If you want to try and force me to come back with you I warn you, this is a very petty issue to weaken the seal over. You don't have to come, but I am going.**" Naruto lied, though he was using Natsumi's chakra, it was by no means affecting the seal.

At this point Sakura and Tazuna were on the ground shaking in fear, while Sasuke was having trouble standing. Kakashi was doing the best, but on the inside he was very disturbed but Naruto's threat. "Very well Naruto, I won't stop, but the rest of us aren't coming. And know that this will be viewed as insubordination but the Hokage and Counsel and they may make you a missing-nin for your actions." Kakashi stated in a shaky voice. He picked up both Sasuke and Sakura and began backing away from the blond. When he was finally out of the range of his KI, he placed both Sakura and Sasuke done and they turned and began running off. Though it was quite obvious that the two genin were a little shaky as they had trouble keeping up at the moderate pace set by their sensei.

When they were out of view, Naruto cut the flow of Natsumi's chakra and stifled his KI. Turning to Tazuna, he lifted the large man up placed him on his feet. Tazuna's eyes were wide and his knees were shaking he was leaning heavily on Naruto's shoulder who was trying to snap him out of his daze. After a few minutes of effort, Naruto just gave up and created a kage bunshin and had it carry the old bridge builder.

Later that day, it was a little after noon, Tazuna and Naruto were on a boat on crossing the channel to Wave Country.

"Thanks for coming with me and all, but are you sure you'll be able to protect me until we I get home?" Tazuna asked nervously. We was slightly afraid of this boy now after what he did to the Demon Brothers and all the KI he had released earlier.

"I hope so. Try not to worry to much I will protect you with my life if need be. I know how it feels to be pushed around by someone stronger that you. I want to help your country as best I can." Naruto stated with conviction. 'I also needed a good reason to leave my village.'

"Well I really do appreciate that. Most people are like your friend back their, they just blow us off and say our problems are our own. You have no idea how hard it was to get the loan for the bridge, and the interest on it is insane." Tazuna said.

"Don't worry. You won't have to pay me. If everything works out then I will be happy with just having helped you and your people." Naruto said.

"Again thank you so much, you-" Just that moment the bridge came into view and Naruto let out a "AHHH."

"That's HUGE!" The blond exclaimed.

"HAHA, ya I know. I want it to be a beacon of hope for the people of Wave, but everyday I lose more and more men who are too afraid to help with the construction for fear of what Gato will do to them." Tazuna stated solemnly.

"Don't worry, I help you as best I-" Naruto was saying, but was interrupted.

"This is as far as I can take Tazuna. I'm really sorry, but I have a family to watch out for." Explained the boat driver.

"No, worry, I understand. Come on kid, it about an hour further to my house." Tazuna said was he got off the little boat. He was directly followed by Naruto and they set out for Tazuna's house.

Half way to the bridge builders home we find Tazuna surrounded by four Naruots. The original was in the front and three kage bunshins were on either side of the old man. As they were going, the kage bunshin on the left of Tazuna heard a rustle in the bushes. Pivoting on his left foot, he threw a kunai into the bushes. The group stopped as the kage bunshin from the left and right entered the bushes to see what had caused the rustle. Just as the two disappeared from view, the two Narutos still with Tazuna heard something flying through the air and tackle Tazuna to the ground. Not a second later, a massive butcher knife shaped blade came soaring down through the air and passed not a foot from their heads. The blade proceeded to imbed itself in a tree and in a puff of smoke a man appear, squatting on it handle. The man was tall and his lack of a shirt showed his well built torso and arms. The had short spiky black hair that was held up by a sideways Kiri Hitai-ate with a slash through it. He wore baggy black and gray camo pants.

" Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Bloody Mist. Its an honor to be in the presence of a true shinobi such as yourself." Naruto stated with a bit of awe in his voice.

"Well at least you are respectful of your betters. Now I'm going to have to ask you to step aside an allow me to kill my target. Oh and you didn't happen to run into some other shinobi on your way here did you?" Zabuza asked as he lifted a non-existent eyebrow and unleashed all of his KI on the blond and old man. Though much to his surprise, the only reaction he got out of the pair was when the bridge builder started breathing a little heavily.

"Let me show you what real Killer Intent feels like." Naruto stated and unleashed about half of his own KI, which was much larger that Zabuza's own. "Now I am sorry, but I can't let you kill my client. And yes I killed the Demon brothers earlier today. They were quite pathetic." Naruto stated and began dropping his KI, he didn't want to scare Tazuna again.

"Well that's quite impressive, but you'll fine that I'm on a whole-nother level than those two." Zabuza said as he pulled his massive butcher knife blade from the tree and jumped down to the lake in front of Naruto. "Now then, let us beg-"

But before he could finish taking another voice interrupted him, "Wait!" And out from the beneath the tree that Zabuza had just been sitting in the two kage bunshins that had gone into the bushes to investigate came out and store everyone's attention. The first was carrying a white rabbit with one arm and petting it soothingly with the other. But it was the second that was drawing all their attention. At his feet was a girl, who looked to be in her mid-teens, on her knees. She was dressed in a green robe with white trim. The robe went down to her mid-thigh under which was a pair of green shorts. She had long black hair and pale skin. Attached to her robe was a an ANBU mask with two red waves design coming up from the bottom. She looked up at Zabuza and exclaimed, "Zabuza-sama!"

"HAKU, how did you get caught, and by two clones no less." Zabuza screamed at her.

"I'm sorry I wa-" Haku tried to explain, but was promptly cut off.

"You failed miserably! I trained you to be better that this. Just kill her please so we can get on with our fight." Zabuza said as he turned his attention back to the original Naruto, but Naruto was busy watching the girl who was now sobbing and mumbling "Zabuza-sama." The kage bunshin guarding her looked at the original and raised an eyebrow while lifting his kunai slightly. The original shook his head slightly. To which the kage bunshin nodded and used the blunt end of the kunai to knock Haku out.

"Now let us play," Naruto stated as he took off his aviators to reveal his red eyes. Pulling out a kunai he began walking forward.

"Hn, give me some fun kid." Zabuza said as he formed a half ram seal with his left hand and cried out, "Kirigakure no Jutsu!" With that heavy mist began to roll in from the water. Soon the entire area was covered with mist so dense that you could hardly see a few feet in front on yourself. "HAHA, get ready kid. Your eyes are useless in here." Boomed Zabuza's voice from all around Naruto.

"I'm not worried, I don't need my eyes." Na replied and he closed his eyes and concentrated on his other senses.

"We'll see kid, we'll see." Was all Zabuza said. Then out of the mist he came with his massive butcher knife sword coming down in a large overhead arc. Naruto simply sidestepped the blow and proceeded to lung forward and swipe and Zabuza with his kunai. The larger missing-nin pulled his large sword back with considerable ease and blocked a series of swipes from Naruto, the last of which brought about a dead lock with each participant attempting to overpower the other. Zabuza was surprised to see that his opponent really did have his eyes closed and was keeping up with his movements.

But keeping up wasn't enough as Zabuza was stronger and began gaining the upper hand and was pushing Naruto's kunai down. Being faced with a losing battle of strength, Naruto broke off and jumped back, just barely evading the butcher sword as it came down at the sudden loss of resistance. The last thing Naruto saw was a smirk on Zabuza's face as the man faded into the mist once more.

With his eyes still closed, Naruto senses were being pushed to their limits as they tried to locate the position of the former member of Kiri's Seven Swordsmen. And… there he had found him. Naruto just waited as the giant cleaver came down at him from behind and chopped him in two, only for him to puff into smoke, "kage bunshin, when did he." Zabuza began, until he felt a kunai being pressed against his neck from behind.

"When we were having our strength contest." Naruto whispered into Zabuza's ear before slicing his neck open, but Naruto's eyes went wide when, instead of blood, water began to spill out. Instinctively rolling to the side, Naruto managed to avoid being cleaved in two, this time for real.

"You weren't the only one to make a bunshin." Zabuza's voice said as it came from all directions once again. Dropping into a defensive stance with his kunai, Naruto just ignored the laughter penetrating though the mist on all sides and ducked under another slash from Zabuza, but this time pursued the eyebrow less man and reengaged him in another bout of kunai vs. oversized butcher knife. Only for it to yield the same results as before with Zabuza pushing him back, but this time Naruto's shoulder received a deep cut even though it heal virtually instantaneously.

Needing a new strategy, Naruto formed a seal hand seal an cried out, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." And five clones popped into existence around him, each of who divided up and went of on their own, while the original snuck back, hoping to not have been noticed himself, when suddenly he got a short memory of a death of one of his clones. With only four left, Naruto began to position himself for his next move. Three left. Two left. One left.

Meanwhile Zabuza was stalking the fifth Naruto, but felt something was afoot. The last four hadn't been trying very hard to conceal their presences. This one was doing slightly better. Good enough to not stand out like the others, but not nearly as well as the original. So it had to be just another kage bunshin, Zabuza reasoned. So he lunged out and cut the kage bunshin in half, and was rewarded by a single word, "Boom." And with that the kage bunshin exploded in a large fireball, throwing Zabuza. Not a second after the explosion went off, Zabuza heard a cry of "Fūton: Daitoppa.(Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)" And like that a powerful gust of wind came through the clearing and threw Zabuza out onto the top of the lake and at the same time dispersing the mist.

Looking up just in time, a slightly burned Zabuza was forced to roll in order to avoid a series of shuriken from an airborne Naruto. Jumping to his feet, Zabuza created a pair of Mizu Bunshin and sent then at Naruto. As the clones engaged in a tag team effort against Naruto. The one in back began running through a long series of hand seals. Using his superior speed, Naruto was able to avoid the attacks of the two Zabuzas. Seeing an opening in one of there defenses, Naruto burst forward. The other Zabuza moved to counter, Naruto, but to his surprise Naruto changed direction and went after his real target the Zabuza in back, who was going through the long series of hands seals.

Just when the Zabuza landed on the last seal, and began to saying, "Suiton: Suiryūda-" He was just off by a kunai being stuck in his throat and the face of a smirking Naruto.

"I won, nice try though." Naruto stated as he pushed Zabuza back, but the moment his body made contact with the lake, it burst into water, showing that it was simply a Mizu Bunshin. At this Naruto's eyes went and he was suddenly felt a huge amount of pain from his stomach to lower back to his stomach. Looking down, Naruto saw the end of Zabuza's butcher knife had cut through his side and half way through his stomach. The wound was bleeding profusely and Naruto could feel blood rising in his throat.

With a swift yank, Zabuza removed the blade and watched as the body of his opponent began to sink slowly into the lake, until he was lost from view. While shaking his head, Zabuza simply say, "Damn brats." And began walking back towards the shore. Just as he stepped onto land, he noticed that the water was starting to ripple and bubble. Turning around, Zabuza watched as the water began to evaporate as if from some sort of extreme heat. And then it began to glow.

Ominously, a red light started to glow down in the water. Slowly it began moving towards the shore. As it got closer, the light only glowed brighter. Then a head burst from the water, showing his supposedly dead opponent with a shroud of red chakra around his body. His blond hair was longer and more wild than before. He was absolutely oozing an ungodly amount of KI and Zabuza began unconsciously backing up as he recognized the look of his opponent. Images flashed through his mind as he remembered his fight with the Yondaime Mizukage, Yagura. He remembered this same scene when Yagura had engaged his own demon cloak and the KI became unbearable. And now Zabuza was feeling it again.

For the first time during this entire fight Zabuza felt fear as his opponents entire body emerged onto land. He saw the wound he had inflicted was gone without even a scar to show it had ever existed. There were three chakra tails swinging back and fourth behind him and what appeared to be large pointy ears on his head. Then he burst forward and speeds far higher speed that anything he had shown thus far in their fight, and the beat down began.

In an attempt to stop his incoming demon opponent, Zabuza swung his sword right into his path, but to his utmost fear, his opponent merely brought up a clawed hand on stopped the sword mid swing.

Naruto pulled the large cleaver sword out of Zabuza's grip and through it to the side. Pulling back his left fist, Naruto sent it into Zabuza's stomach before he could react and sent him flying, but before Zabuza's body could return to earth, Naruto was already behind him and proceeded to kick him into the air. Then jumped after him and delivered a powerful ax-kick sending Zabuza back down to earth at frightening speeds.

Where Zabuza impacted, a large crater was created. As the dust cleared, Zabuza's broken body was visible at the bottom of the pit. Both his arms were bent in the wrong direction and a bone was sticking out of his right thigh. His eyes were glazed over as Naruto approached him with Zabuza's own sword in hand.

With no special last words, or final attempts at victory, Zabuza accepted his fate and shut his eyes while waiting for the final brow to be struck… He wasn't disappointed as not a second later the giant cleaver came down and lopped of his head.

"And so the Demon Child of Konoha proves victorious over the Demon of the Bloody Mist." Naruto stated as the chakra cloak around him began receding back into his body. To which he collapsed from exhaustion.

Slowly approaching the perimeter of the crater created by Zabuza's body, Tazuna and the three kage bunshin Naruto had left to guard him, were greeted by a headless Zabuza and collapsed sword wielding Naruto. "Well he won." One of the Naruto's stated.

"Yep. Tazuna how much longer until we reach your house?" The Naruto with the rabbit asked.

"About thirty more minutes." Tazuna replied.

"Okay, you," said the Naruto with Haku over his shoulder as he pointed at the Naruto who was empty handed. "Go grab the boss. Also, seal away Zabuza's sword and head away with the Demon Brothers' stuff. Then burn the body." He instructed. Five minutes later, they were on their way, hoping not to run into anymore resistance.

The next day at the front gates of Konoha a little after noon, Kakashi and his two remaining genin were just making it back home. As they approached the main gates, they were called out by the pair of chunin guards. "Please come over here and sign back in."

The three members of team Seven quickly complied and were off towards the Hokage tower by way of roof tops. When the Chunin guard looked down at the sheet he couldn't help but remark, "It seems they are missing someone from their team."

"Who is it?" His partner asked.

"They were missing…hmm lets see… they were missing one Uzumaki Naruto." The first chunin stated.

"No shit. So the Demon Brat didn't come back from the mission? Do you think he's dead?" The second chunin asked as a smile began forming on his lips.

"I don't know, but its definitely a possibility." The first commented with his own grin.

Back with Kakashi and the remainder of his team, they were just walking into the Hokage tower. They marched right up to the Hokage's secretary, "We need to speak with Hokage-sama immediately."

The secretary looked up to see the one eyed jonin with a very serious look on his face, which was quite a surprise as he was almost always laid back and carefree. "Hokage-sama is in a counsel meeting, b-"

Before the women could finish watch she was saying, Kakashi was already walking off in the direction of the counsel chamber.

When he reached the door, the two ANBU on duty stepped in from of him, but before they would do anything, Kakashi shoved both of them out of the way and knocked the doors open.

Everyone looked up at the new presence but were shocked to see the serious look on Kakashi's face as the one eyed jonin marched up to the Hokage.

"Kakashi, what is the meaning of this?" The third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, asked in a stern voice.

"I need to report the result of my teams mission." Kakashi replied as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I am in the middle of a meeting this can wait until later." Hiruzan stated firmly while noting that only Sasuke and Sakura were present with their sensei.

"This is a serious matter that needs to be discussed immediately." Kakashi reason.

"What is so important about the results of a C-rank mission. And where is Naruto?" The Third asked.

"That's what I am here about Hokage-sama. If you would allow me to give my report I you will understand the reason for my urgency." Kakashi said. The Third just gave a sigh at the mention of Naruto, followed by a wave of his hand to have Kakashi continue. "Our mission was a C-rank protection mission for a bridge builder named Tazuna. He was on his way to Wave Country and supposedly just wanted protection from bandits and highway robbers. But on the Fourth day, we were ambushed by a pair of Kiri missing-nin, the Demon Brothers, whom we found out were after our client Tazuna. Naruto proceeded to defeat the two with easy. After which we questioned Tazuna about the real nature of our mission. He proceeded to tell us that Wave Country is suffering due to Gato, the shipping magnate billionaire, having a monopoly on all shipping. Gato has been bleeding the country dry of all their money and resources. In order to counter Gato and free his country, Tazuna was been building a bridge to the mainland. Gato sent shinobi to kill him. After being told all this information, Naruto said that we should continue on, even though the next opponent we were going to face was most likely going to be a jonin level opponent. I decided that we were going to drop the mission because I felt that a genin team was no where near being well enough prepared to deal with a possible A-rank mission. Naruto refused to drop the mission and when I was about to force him to come back with us he began giving of massive amounts of killer intent and 'its' chakra. He then stated, and I quote, 'If you want to try and force me to come back with you I warn you, this is a very petty issue to weaken the seal over.' After he said that I wasn't about to attempt to deal with he and let him be as the rest of my team and I returned as fast as we could." Kakashi finished to an absolutely silent room. Many looks of fear and anger were visible, though Sasuke and Sakura were just standing there with dumb looks on their face.

"This is a very serious matter. Kakashi, thank you for returning so quickly. You stay, but your team is dismissed." Hiruzen stated and waved his hand in a dismissive manner at the two genin in the room.

"Hey, I want to stay and hear what this is all about!" Sasuke shouted out.

"I SAID LEAVE THIS INSTANT! THIS DOES NOT CONCERN YOU!" The third shout at the top of his lungs and the stubborn genin, while unleash a huge amount of KI. Upon feeling it, both the genin were left scurrying out of the room, with the doors slamming behind them. "Now before we begin. This is going to be a civilized ordeal. Anyone who cannot act professionally will be thrown out. I know this is a touchy topic for many, but in order to come to any sort of solution we must stay level headed."

"HOKAGE-SAMA HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT THE DEMON IS GOIN-" But before the frantic counsel member could finish, the Third snapped his fingers, and in the blink of an eye, a pair of ANBU appeared, grabbed the man and disappeared.

"Now does anyone else want to leave now?" the Hiruzen asked in a calm voice. "No? Good, then let us begin."

"Wait, this is troublesome, but I want to hear something else before we start. Kakashi you said that Naruto defeated two chunin level opponents on his own, but not only that, he did it with considerable ease?" Nara Shikaku asked.

"(Sigh) From what I gathered through out the trip, Naruto is what could be considered a genius-" Kakashi started.

"WHAT! But he was the dead last in the academy, do you actually expect up to believe that he had any potential?" Screamed a certain pink hair member of the civilian side of the counsel.

"Yes, I do expect you to believe me Haruno-san. He explained to be that he has been finding his skill for a very long time. The reason for which, in his words, 'What will people view as a bigger threat from the 'demon brat'; if he's weak and an idiot, or if he is strong and smart?' He did it to protect himself as much as he could. Now that he is an official shinobi he felt that he could safely come out as his true self." Kakashi explained. "In order to test Naruto's skill, I had his fight Sasuke on the first night. Naruto destroyed Sasuke. You couldn't really call it a true fight as Sasuke didn't land a single hit."

"AGAIN! You seriously expect us to believe that he was talented enough to not only beat Sasuke, who is an Uchiha, but also that be won quite handily?" Came the scream of counsel women Haruno once again.

"Yes. Through both the fight with Sasuke and the Demon Brothers, he used three A-rank techniques, show incredible speed and strength for his age. He also stated that he had a few teacher here in Konoha, one of who was Gai." Kakashi continued.

"ANBU please bring us Gai." The Hokage ordered. "Now, so we know that he was stronger, and probably smarter than let on, but please the important issue is that Naruto said that using then chakra of the Kyubi would weaken the seal. Implying that he could use it if he wanted. Also it means that he has some sort of knowledge about the inner workings of the seal itself."

"Now that you say that I forgot to mention what I noticed him reading a book on sealing, but I never got a chance to ask him about that." Kakashi added.

"I would like to point out that his sudden change could be due to the Kyubi taking over his body. That would mean that he was never actually hiding his potential and instead was actually the Kyubi's excuse to cover his take over. And it is studying seals in order to free itself from its prison." Yamanaka Inoichi offered.

"But then it would have had no reason to go on with the mission. It would have just left the village and freed itself. Also, it would have probably kill us off in order to cover its trail instead of letting us go." Kakashi countered.

"Yes, and also, if that was the case then it could have just started to using its chakra to weaken the seal, instead of threaten to." Akimichi Choza added.

"Ok, so Naruto wasn't possessed by the Kyubi, then why would he threaten us with such a thing as releasing the Kyubi. If he really is smarter then he would have know that this would cause an uproar." The Third mused.

"He was very adamant about helping the oppressed people of wave." Kakashi said.

"Even if what he did was to help people, your are all missing the fact that he disobeyed a direct order and proceeded to threaten the village. That is treason no matter how you look at it. If we let him go off on his own that would tell our shinobi that is okay to disobey orders, if you are doing the 'right' thing." Pointed out the ever stoic Danzo. "I believe he should be placed in the bingo book as a missing-nin."

This received cries of agreement from much of the counsel. Though the Hokage tried to put out the fire that Danzo started, he proved unable to deny the fact that Naruto had basically abandoned the village, even if it was to help people.

And hour later all the had been decided. And though Hiruzen was sad that he was unable to protect Naruto he knew this had to happen. The only thing that was left was for them to get an idea for Naruto's skill level. And so they had to wait for the arrival of one Maito Gai.

As everyone was proceeding to settle down and wait for the arrival of the taijutsu specialist, the doors to the counsel chamber were flung open and in stepped Gai. Many couldn't help but scowl at the mans complete lack of fashion. Gai wore a tight green jump suit with a jonin vest. Along with orange leg warmers and a red belt Hitai-ate, he had a black bowl cut and shiny teeth. "The ever youthful Maito Gai, reporting in Hokage-sama!" Gai exclaimed.

"Yes Gai, we have called you here to talk to you about Naruto-" The old Sarutobi started, but was unable to finish.

"Yes, how is my youthful student!?" the green clad man shouted.

"Yes, Naruto. We need to give us an analysis of his abilities for the Bingo Book-" The third tried to explain, but was again cut off.

"Why would you do something as unyouthful as putting Naruto-kun in the Bingo Book?!" Boomed Gai.

"You see Gai he recently disobeyed direct orders to abandon a mission and proceeded to threaten his sensei, Kakashi. He then went on with the mission on his own." Hiruzen explained to the overexcited jonin. "Because of this he has been labeled a missing-nin and we need to know what he is capable in order to properly label his new page."

There was a moment of silence and much to everyone's surprise, when Gai spoke again it was in but a normal tone and completely lacking any shouts of youth, "May I inquire as to why Naruto-kun refused to abandon his mission."

"Well , we don't exactly know." The Hokage answered.

"So we are condemning Naruto-kun for something without actually knowing the reason behind his actions. How are we to know that what he was doing was not to help or benefit Konoha. I don't know what the details of the mission were, but from what I understand you as passing judgment with an incomplete story." Gai explained.

"I'm sorry Gai, while they may be true, do to some details of the incident that we have not shared with you, we are taking preemptive steps to ensure the safety of Konoha. Now I sorry for doing this, but I am ordering you to tell us what you know about the skills of one Naruto along with any of his other teachers that you know of." The Hokage ordering in an authorative voice.

Gai's eyes narrowed as he looked at the Hokage. "Very well, Hokage-sama. I merely worked with him on his conditioning, speed, and strength. All the potential and energy was there, I just focused it. His speed was low jonin, though his strength was much higher. He had what seemed like near endless energy and was able to keep up with myself and my student Rock Lee throughout our entire workouts. I was never able to convince him to use training weight, always said he didn't need them. That's all I know." Gai stated and looked over the many amazed expressions throughout the room. While many of those present, may not have liked Naruto, the fact that he could keep up with Gai throughout his entire workout is nothing short of spectacular.

"I would like to ask about the taijutsu style he was using when he faced Sasuke. He was completely dodging every single blow that came at him, but the way he moved was almost elega-" Kakashi began , but was just off by Gai.

"You saw him use his dance?! Did he have his eyes open or closed?! Did he tell you anything about it?! Were you able to copy any of it on your Sharingan?!" Gai screamed at Kakashi as the green man had literally pickup the scarecrow jonin and was shaking him wildly.

"GAI! GAI!" Everyone was screaming at him as he continued to shake Kakashi and bombard him with questions.

After a minute, the Third was forced to call in ANBU and have them pry Gai off of Kakashi. "Gosh, Gai what was that for. He had his eyes closed, he didn't tell me anything about it and no I couldn't copy anything with the Sharingan. I wasn't even able to predict his movements with it." Kakashi explained and was rewarded with a collective gasp from the audience. "Now what do you know about this 'dance', Gai?" Kakashi questioned.

"(Sigh) Not much. Naruto-kun explained the basics of it. When every I called it a form of fighting, he always told me that it was a dance. There are three forms. The first is solely defensive. It relies entirely on speed and situational awareness. Naruto-kun describes the dance as 'being a leave in the wind' you literally have to just more and completely freely. He usually would do this with his eyes closed to get a better feel for using his other senses. When Naruto-kun used this both me and Lee were unable to touch him with my weights on and Lee's weights off.." Again every one in the room gasped. "The second dance is solely offensive. And is basically the exact opposite of the first dance. Using speed and strength, Naruto would quickly move into his opponents guard and deliver an attack that would shatter their defense and give him the opportunity to land a decisive blow. He was less proficient at this one, but was still able to defeat by student Lee without his weights, given the fight was much longer and drawn out. The final dance is a combination of the first two that must be performed in perfect harmony. When Lee and I would train with him, this what Naruto-kun practiced the most as it is incredibly difficult to do. Last I checked he hadn't worked it out and instead just would switch off between the first two dances. If he were to perfect his final dance and increase his speed further, he would be unstoppable in a taijutsu contest." As Gai finished the room was full of gaping faces. The fact that Gai was praising Naruto so much let some worried and other impressed.

"Gai why were you asking me so many questions about his dances, if you know so much?" Kakashi asked.

"I know what the results of the dances are, but according to Naruto there is a very specific method to learning it and refused to share it with me. After analyzing it further, I couldn't figure out how he did it. The only person I could think would be able to do it would be someone with a Byakugan, but this dance is much better than the Juken." Gai stated.

"That is nonsense. There is no way this 'dance' could be better that the Juken." Hyuga Hiashi exclaimed.

"I will not get in this argument with you again Hiashi. The Juken isn't perfect." Gai yelled back.

The third just slapped his forehead. Hiruzen hated it when these two went at it with each other and changing the subject in order to defuse the situation, "So Gai you only spoke of Naruto's taijutsu prowess. What about ninjutsu and genjutsu?"

With one last glare at Hiahsi, Gai answered, "I know that he was quite good at ninjutsu, but he never used it around me. I know he had a teacher for it, but he never told me who. I also know that he had a genjutsu teacher, but I don't know who that is either. Though I would like to know, Kakashi, how was Naruto acting and dressed?"

"He was acting completely different that he used to. No more shouting or being easily angered. And he was dressed in almost all black. Why do you ask?" Kakashi responded.

"I just wanted to see if Naruto took off his mask and showed his true face, which it seems he did. Is there anything else you need Hokage-sama?" Gai asked.

"No, thank you very much Gai, you are dismissed." Hiruzen responded. He was slightly disappointed that he had to force Gai to divulge that information, but it was necessary. Everyone watched as the green man left before turning back to the Hokage. "Naruto will be placed in the Bingo Book under the rank-B. Kakashi I want you to right up the appearance and personality part as you were the only one to spend anytime with him. Other than that this meeting is over.(Sigh) I think we have done enough for today. Also I going to start an investigation to find out who his other teachers were." Stated the Third. The various occupants all got out of their seat and went off to do what they do.

"Anko-chan!" Screamed Gai as he rushed towards the table the snake mistress was sitting at.

"GAI I TOLD YOU NEVER TO CALL ME THAT!" Mitarashi Anko screamed back at Gai.

"Now is not the time Anko" Gai replied seriously. Noticing his unusual behavior, Anko let it slide and waved for him to sit with her. "Naruto is being made a missing-nin-"

"WHAT!" Exclaimed Anko.

"SIT DOWN AND LET ME FINISH!" Gai yelled right back in a rather harsh tone, to which she complied immediately. Angering Gai was never a good idea. "I was just in a counsel meeting. The Hokage _ORDERED_ me to tell him all I knew about Naruto's skills. I told them a bit, but not everything. They also were looking for his other instructor, though I said I didn't know who it was, I just wanted to tell you about this. I would highly advice abgainst confronting anyone about this. I wasn't given the detail on what happened. Only that he disobeyed a direct order to abandon a mission, which he refused, and proceeded to threaten his sensei, Kakashi. I was told that there was more to it, but wasn't told what."

"Why are they always after Whiskers-kun. Anyways, thanks for tell me I back off for now. Anything else?" Anko asked rather testily.

"Yes, I think it would be smart for you to send him a message informing him of this, so he doesn't come back to Konoha unaware." To which Anko nodded. "If anything comes up, please inform me. I think this is unjust, but there is nothing I can do about it. Please get that message to him." And like that, Gai got up and walked off leaving Anko to think about what he just said.

'What are you doing Whiskers-kun?' she thought as she paid for her late lunch and left the restaurant.

"Look he's starting to finally wake up." Came a gruff voice from Naruto's right. As he opened his eyes, Naruto found his normally crystal clear vision completely blurry. Blinking slowly, the blur began to clear up and revealed two people leaning over his head. It took Naruto's head a second for the gears to get churning, but when they did, he realized that the one on his right was Tazuna, while the other was a female in her who looked to be in her early thirties.

"Hey old man, what's going on?" Naruto asked, though it only came out as a mumble.

"Well you've been asleep for a whole day now. We were starting to worry that you wouldn't be getting." Tazuna responded with a smile.

"Good to no you care," Naruto replied with a little laugh. "So what happened?"

"Well after you killed that Zabuza dude, your clone things brought you that girl, and that rabbit back here. There isn't exactly much to tell. As that all that really happened. Your clones put that girl in the guest room and told us not to go in there until you got up. Oh and we have been looking after that rabbit, though the clones didn't say why we should. The clones disappeared last night, said they were out of chakra, though I'm not sure what that is." Tazuna explained, while Naruto sat up.

"That's great and all, but, ahh, where's the bathroom." Naruto asked rather sheepishly as he put a hand behind his head and grin.

"Well, it just out this room and to the left. Last door on your right." The women instructed. "Oh and I'm Tsunami, Tazuna's daughter. Thank you so much for protecting my father, even though you didn't have to." She said and gave a slight bow to the blond as he left the room. As he was walking down the hall, Naruto heard her yell after him, "And there is some lunch prepared downstairs. Come on down when you are done."

"Thanks," Naruto called back as he entered the bath room. A few minutes later, Naruto came walking down the stairs. He was only wearing his short sleeved mesh under shirt, that had a big gash where Zabuza had wounded him in the side, and his black cargo pants. Other than that his mask, trench coat, glasses, and boots were all still sitting in the room he had been sleeping in.

Reaching the bottom floor, Naruto found himself in a large dining room. There was a long table that had room for at least a dozen people. Continuing on, Naruto found Tsunami in the kitchen standing over a pot of stew. "Hello." he said.

"Oh, hello to you too. Here is lunch, its not much, but its something. Please help yourself. It's a vegetable stew. And in that basket over there are some rice balls. Feel free to have some." Tsunami finished with a warm smile on her lips.

"Thanks, and I hope you don't mind if I bring some up to the girl upstairs." Naruto asked to which she just nodded. Smiling back at the older woman, Naruto formed the cross hand seal and called out "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu" and like that there was another Naruto in the room. The doppelganger nodded to the original and got two bowl of the stew and spoons, while the original grabbed four rice balls. "And by the way, where is she?" Naruto asked with a little nervous chuckle.

Tsunami just smiled at him, "She is in the room directly across from the one you were sleeping in."

Naruto nodded and left with his kage bunshin in tow. When Naruto opened the door, he found that the room was much like the one he had been sleeping in. Two mattresses against the right wall and dresser and closet on the left. On the far side of the room was a single window that provided light to the room. On the mattress farther from the door, tied up, was the girl, still dressed in her clothes. She was facing towards the open window and didn't react as the pair of Naruto's entered the room.

The second Naruto placed the bowls of stew on the ground next to her mattress and vanished in a cloud of smoke as it dispersed itself. The remaining Naruto sat down on the open mattress and placed the rice balls next to himself. Then reached towards the tension string, that if pulled would let the girl out.

Haku was bored out of her mind. She had been lying in the exact same position for hours, and now she was hungry and had to go to the bathroom. She let out a sigh, just as she heard the door open. Listening carefully, Haku heard something being placed on the floor behind her and her eyes went wide. 'He's going to torture me! Is he going to rape me too? What does he want?' She thought to herself and started panicking on the inside.

Suddenly the string around her loosened and Haku's eyes went wide. Rolling over, she was rather shocked to find a blond man sitting there holding out a bowl of stew to her. "I'm sure you're hungry from having to wait for so long, sorry about that." The blond said to her.

'He just let me go. What is he up to, why would he just release me and then give me food. Wait a second I don't even no who the heck he is in the first place.' Haku thought to herself, not recognizing him due to his state of dress. Sitting up and reaching out, Haku grabbed the bowl and spoon he was offering her.

"I'm Naruto by the way." Naruto said as he began to devouring his own bowl. 'Pretty bland,' he thought to himself. 'Well they probably don't have much.'

Haku just watch as Naruto polished off his bowl in five seconds flat, before she too began to eat, though at a much more reasonable pace, in her mind anyways.

The rest of their meal past relatively quickly. Naruto ended up eating three of the rice balls, with Haku taking the last one. When all was said and done, an awkward silence ensued.

After a few minutes, Haku gathered up the courage to ask Naruto a question, though it came out as but a whisper, "What happened to Zabuza-sama."

Rather bluntly Naruto stated, "I killed him." He watched at Haku stiffened and her head drooped.

Out of no where she began crying and muttering about being a "broken tool." She proceeded to pull her legs up to her chest, let her tears stain her shorts.

Naruto just watched slightly confused until a image flashed through him mind. He remembered seeing Natsumi like this once. When he had confronted her about her true identity. With that though in his mind, Naruto did the same thing he had done on that fateful day.

Haku was in turmoil. She had failed the one person who had given her a purpose. As she sat there curled up to her knee, every memory of Zabuza she had was slowly flashing through her mind. And with each passing second she began feeling something that she hadn't felt since when Zabuza had first taken her under his wing. Loneliness. 'I had one person in this entire world and I failed him. I should have been the one to die, not him.' She thought and proceeded to go into a rant on how useless she was, only to be interrupted as she felt two arms wrap around her waist and pull her towards the wall. But when she stopped moving, her breathing hitched and mind went blank.

Looking up from her knees, Haku found herself being hugged by the very person who had just shattered her entire world. He was leaning against the wall and had pulled her right in between his two legs. And he was so… warm. It was rather soothing. Haku found her self cuddling into the Naruto's chest as she continued to mourn the loss of her only precious person.

When Naruto felt her pulling closer to him he couldn't help but feel happy that this hug seemed to be helping, so he held her close and just waited for her tears to run their course.

Twenty minutes later, when her crying had stopped and was only sobbing occasionally. "Haku, who was Zabuza to you?" Naruto whispered softly into her ear.

With this questioned her sobbing increased a bit, but after a short silence, she began to speak, though her speech was croppy, "He was everything to me. I would've done anything for him because he saved me."

This picked Naruto's curiosity, "What did he save you from?"

Again, it took Haku a minute before she was able to answer. "I was all alone. I'm from Water Country. There was something special about me that made people afraid of me. When I was four my father found out and killed my mother and tried to kill me. I killed my father. I was forced onto the streets until he found me and gave me a purpose. He wanted me for the very reason so many other had hated me." Haku said rather simply and began to full on cry once again and Naruto just hugged her.

Naruto couldn't help but think, 'Wow, I guess my story ain't to original. People hate me for something I have no control over.'

"**Ya, that isn't an original story at all. Humans have always hated what they didn't understand, and even a lot of things that they do. This should make you realize Naruto, you aren't alone.**" Natsumi told Naruto.

"I'm not alone." He mumbled to himself.

"What?" Haku asked.

Looking down at her, Naruto smiled a sad smile, "You aren't alone Haku." Though with no explanation the girl just looked confused at the words. She was about to speak again, but Naruto beat her to it and hushed her, "Shhh… we'll talk later." He whispered into her ear. Haku just complied. In the silence that followed, both were left to think about their own thoughts as they tried to understand the simple phase running through both their heads, 'I'm not alone?'

Light… There's light.

As her eye lids fluttered open Haku found herself looking out that window once more, but all the earlier feeling of doubt and despair, the inner turmoil itself seemed to have smoothed out. She realized as she sat up, that the world seemed less dark and scary. All because now, 'I'm not alone.' But her momentary blissful wakeup was disrupted when a new simple thought came into her head. 'Why am I not alone? Zabuza-sama is dead. What did Naruto mean when he said that.'

Looking around, Haku found herself alone in the room she had been in for almost two days now. Getting up, she walked out into the hall. Nervously, she approach the stairs and looked down into the dinning room.

At the table she observed Naruto and the bridge builder eating breakfast with another women and young boy.

While Naruto was eating a spoonful of oatmeal, he felt a new presence nearby. Looking over his shoulder, the blond spotted Haku standing at the top of the stairs looked down at him. With a small smile on his face, Naruto waved his free hand to her. "Good morning Haku. Are you hungry?" He called up.

When she realized that she had been spotted, Haku hesitated to accept the boy's offer. But after a moments hesitation, she began to descend the wooden stairs that gave off a creaking after ever step. When she reached the bottom, she found that everyone was now looking at her, making her more nervous. It didn't help, that three of the faces didn't seem to be to happy about her presence.

Walking over to Naruto, sat down on the cushion right next to him, but refused to look up from her lap, until a moment later a bowl found its way to her place. Looking up, Haku saw the women giving her an obviously forced smile, but never the less returned it, "Thank you." She said tentatively and began to eat her own oatmeal.

Silence followed as everyone at the table ate their food. As Naruto finished his third bowl, he looked around the table and gave out a sigh when he saw how uncomfortable everyone was. "Tazuna, when do you have to be going to work on the bridge?"

Looking to the old clock on the wall behind the head of the table, Tazuna saw it read 7:10. "Well I should be arriving around eight. Though I'm not sure how many men are going to be showing up. Having been away for so long, I have no idea where progress currently is at. I set out a work schedule, but knowing that things have probable gotten worse since I left I doubt the goals I set have been reached." Tazuna stated in a voice that seemed to be much older that he really was.

"Well lets get going after we finish breakfast then. I can try and supplement workers for you also to help speed up production." Naruto added.

"And how can you do that?" Tsunami asked.

"Remember those clones." He asked and got a nod from the woman. "Well those are called kage bunshins. Its basically a solid copy of me, of which I can create up to a thousand." At which caused everyone to look at him in surprise, including Haku. Though when Haku looked at him she spotted a certain white rabbit in his lap. When Naruto noticed her looking he couldn't help but smile. "Is he yours?" He asked as he picked the bunny up in his arms and held him out to Haku.

Haku nodded and took the offered rabbit and hugged the little creature to her chest. "What's his name." came Naruto voice, making Haku realize that once again everyone was looking at her.

"Mr. Fluffy." She said rather quickly, before looking down to hide the light blush in her cheeks. She was embarrassed by the name, which Zabuza had said was 'Pathetic.'

"That's a nice name for a rabbit. He is quite fluffy." Naruto stated as he reached over and rubbed Mr. Fluffy behind the ears. When he finished he turned back to Tazuna, "As far as my kage bunshins go, I should be able to make as many as you need, but I know nothing about bridge construction."

"Well you aren't alone. Most of the men that work for me learn on the job. I'll give you a crash course when we get there and then you and your clones can get to work, but I have to ask, what is she going to be doing during all this?" Tazuna asked with narrowed eyes and a finger pointed at Haku. Who again dropped her head.

Seeing her reaction Naruto couldn't help but be a little sad for her. "Don't worry, she will be coming with us to the bridge, I need to talk with her." Naruto replied firmly. Tazuna only nodded back.

"Why are you doing this. You can't stop Gato!" The little boy spoke up suddenly.

"Inari mind your manners. He is trying to help us. I'm sor-" Tsunami began apologizing, but was cut off by Naruto.

"No its ok. I am doing this kid because I know what its like to suffer an-" Naruto began explaining himself, but the little boy interrupted him.

"What do you know about our suffering. You're a ninja. You probably haven't had to work a day in your lif-" But he never got to finish that sentence as Naruto unleashed a massive amount of KI that left everyone in the room floored and having trouble breathing.

"What do I know about suffering you ask?!" Naruto said in a sickly sweet voice, "I SHOULD ASK YOU THAT! YOU HAVE A FAMILY THAT LOVES YOU, A HOUSE TO LIVE IN, AND FOOD TO EAT! I HAVE BEEN ALONE SINCE DAY NUMBER ONE! I HAVE SLEPT IN CARDBOARD BOXES IN ALLEYS BECAUSE NOT EVEN THE ORPHANAGE WOULD LET BE LIVE THERE! I WOULD EAT OUT OF DUMPSTERS, QUITE LITERALLY TRASH, JUST TO GET BY. HAVE YOU HAD TO DO ANY OF THIS?! I ENVY YOU! YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT I NEVER GOT TO HAVE! YOU STILL HAVE YOUR INOCENCE AND YOUR CHILDHOOD, AND YET THROUGH ALL THIS YOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO SAY YOU HAVE SUFFERED?!" He screamed at the younger boy. Silence followed his declaration. To Inari's credit he never broke eye contact with Naruto throughout his entire rant, though he did have tears streaming down his face.

Slowly the KI in the air began to drop until it was gone and everyone was allowed to breath again. When Naruto opened his mouth again it was barely a whisper, but everyone heard it quite clearly, "I have never been given anything. Everything I have I worked for. The reason I am here standing against Gato is because I hate to see people take advantage of others. What I want to do with my life is help those who can't help themselves and hopeful show them how to do it themselves. I pray, that when I die, I die fighting for what I believe to be right." The blond finished and abruptly stood up and walked to the front door. "When you two are ready I'll be waiting out here." And like that he was gone from the room leaving four people to their thoughts.

Ten minutes later both Tazuna and Haku came out. The young women was still clutching Mr. Fluffy in her arms as they began their walk to the bridge in silence. For Tazuna being near Naruto after his little outburst was a little frightening, and he didn't want to say anything that could possibly set him off again. Haku on the other hand was awed and saddened by what Naruto had said. While she was glad that she could talk to someone who understood what she had gone through, the fact that he had turned out so different from her made her a little wary of him. She couldn't understand how after going through everything he had, he had decided that he wanted to help others. Haku also was disappointed in herself for not having any dream or goal to work for now that Zabuza was dead. While her own reliance on Zabuza was painfully obvious to even her, Haku still felt lost without him there telling her what to do. That sense of relief that she had felt that morning when waking up was all gone, and the storms inside her heart had returned.

When they got to the bridge, they were greeted by a rag tag looking group of merely twenty men. With the appearance of Naruto, who was dressed in his full outfit again, from trench coat to mask, boots and glasses, all the men present took a step back quite intimidated by his appearance.

"Twenty. There are only twenty of you left! What happened? There were a hundred of you before I left." Tazuna exclaimed, causing many of the men to cringe. After a moment of looking between themselves, a young man stepped forward nervously.

"Well you see Tazuna-san there isn't really much to say. Most people just don't think that Gato will let us finish this bridge and are afraid for there family and friends." The man said before stepping back into the line.

"(Sigh) Ok well lets get to work." Tazuna said to his line of workers.

"Sorry to be disrespectful, but won't it take us years to complete the bridge with this many of us working on it." A man on the far right asked.

At this a smile found its way onto Tazuna's face and he pointed to naruto. "That's what we have him for. Now lets get to work." Tazuna stated and began walking down the bridge. Over the next hour him and Naruto worked out what the blond's clones were going to doing and how to do what.

After which, Naruto created five hundred kage bunshin and set them to work. Then the other men working on the bridge saw the creation and action of all the blonds, they were absolutely stunned. For a few of them, just a few, hope was created and they though that just maybe everything was going to be alright and they threw themselves into there work with a renewed vigor.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Haku were sitting down in the shade of a grove of trees just at the beginning of the bridge. While they watched Naruto's mass clone army working on the bridge, they engaged in light conversation while Naruto was doing physical training and Haku was enjoying petting Mr. Fluffy.

After a while, when the sun was high in the sky, Haku finally asked the question that had been on her mind since Naruto's shouting at breakfast. "All those things you said happened to you. Was it really that bad?" She asked lightly and looked him in the eyes.

The moment the words came out of her mouth, Naruto stiffened in the middle of a one handed push up and his face visibly darkened. After a moment of holding himself in a half pushup, Naruto sat up and visibly grimaced. While he was working out Naruto had only been wearing his mesh shirt and pants, giving Haku the opportunity to see all the emotions that were playing across his face.

"No." was the only word the blond said and Haku felt slightly disappointed thinking that he meant that he really didn't understand her. And though she knew it was cruel, she wished he did, at least until he finished his statement. "It was much worse."

This made Haku's eyes go wide as her mind started racing and trying to figure out how it could possibly be any worse, but when she couldn't she asked, "How was is worse."

Again, Haku watched all the emotion that played over Naruto's face and his eyes. The blazing red orbs with little black slits. They showed so much pain and loneliness all on their own. They reminded her of her own eyes when she had been little, before she had met Zabuza.

When Naruto spoke again his voice was void of emotion and completely dead, "I didn't mention the mob beatings. The times I was burned alive. All the broken bones. Being tied to tables and tortured. Waking up to find myself in a grave being buried alive." Narrated Naruto as Haku continued to look in his unblinking eyes, but as Haku listened, her face to on a look of horror, but he wasn't done. "Like I said, I was alone, as far as I know, from day number one of the hell called my life. Before I had turned one there had already been over fifty know attempts at my life. This trend continued on throughout my life, though went I was still around after all these years, they eventually began to drop in number, but only to be replaced by frequent assaults on me."

And Naruto let out a sigh as he took out a kunai from the holster on his leg. And brought it up to his arm. Haku watched in utter shock as he proceeded to plunge the blade into his forearm cut himself from the elbow to his wrist before removing the blade letting blood flow out of the new wound. Haku was about to yell at him for doing that, but just as she opened her mouth, the wound began healing itself, and but a second after it was created, the wound was gone, without even a scar to show it had once been there.

"That is why they kept coming back. They could never finish the job, but that didn't stop them from trying. But the worst of it all was when I would walk the streets and they would just glare at be. They would whisper and curse my very existence for the choices that other made for me. That's what hurt the worst, knowing that I had no choice in why I was hated." He whispered.

"Through all that happened to me I persevered. I had no friends so I would train. I had no food so I would steal. I couldn't fight so I would run. As time went on I eventually did meet some people I could call friend, though we were all outcasts in our own rights. It was good to have them around, but it never replaced the loss of having a family. At least until I get one person who I would honestly say I love. Even though I haven't known her the whole time, she has always been with me. It was because of her that I made it through some of the more difficult years…" Naruto stated. And again silence followed. As Haku looked at Naruto, he looked as though he was lost in his own head.

'He has been through all this and yet he still goes on. What makes him so strong.' She thought. "How do you do it all?" Haku asked.

"Everything that has happened to be has made me stronger. Since I have been so low I can actually appreciate the good things in life that most people take for granted . When most people help someone else they will feel a small sense of accomplishment. I on the other hand will help someone and it means the world to me. I would never wish anything that has happened in my life on anyone. So I never what to see another person have to go through all that stuff. That's why I want to help others." Naruto explained.

Leaving Haku to her thought this time. 'Everything that he has done has made his stronger? Has anything I have done made me stronger? He was such a strong will.'

"Anyways, I don't want to talk about this anymore. New subject, so what are you going to do?" Naruto asked, as his voice returned to normal.

This question threw Haku in a loop, "What do you mean?"

"Well what are you going to do now that Zabuza is dead."

"I don't know… I don't have anywhere to go." Haku stated.

"Well if you want to come with me that's fine. I mean it when I said you aren't alone anymore." Naruto replied and gave the girl a smile.

Haku thought back to yesterday when he had told her though and she felt herself become a little happy. "Why would you do that?"

Naruto just gave her a confused look. "Have you not been listening to me this whole time. I said I don't want to see other people suffer. I don't want you to be alone anymore, so if you don't have anyone to go to, then you can come with me."

"Th-thank you Naruto-sama." Haku said, but Naruto just frowned.

"Don't call me that. I said I don't like people taking advantage of others." He said quite firmly.

"Please." Haku asked desperately. "It makes me feel like I have someone I belong to. Please let me call you that."

As Naruto looked at her he could understand what she was asking from him, but didn't like it. She was so used to being a thing to someone that she didn't understand that she could be a person on her own. Shaking his head he responded, "Fine you can call me that."

Haku's reaction came as a complete surprise to him as she let out an almost fan girl-ish squeal and gromped onto Naruto. But a moment later, without him even saying anything she had already jumped back and had a sorrowful look on her face. "I'm sorry Naruto-sama. I sho-" she tried to explain herself.

Naruto just found the whole thing amusing. "You know Haku, if you ever need a hug that's fine, you don't need to apologize for it." He said with a smile as he stood up and faced her. Haku just blushed at his comment and continued to look down. "There is something you need to know though Haku, if you are going to be traveling with me, there is a good chance you will need to fight people and probably kill at times kill them."

Haku just nodded her head, though on the inside she knew this would be hard for her. Then she realized something, "You said traveling. Aren't you going to be going back to Konoha?"

Naruto just shook his head, "When me and my genin team originally took this mission is was our first C-rank mission-"

"You're already a jonin sensei?!" Haku exclaimed.

"No, I am a genin." Naruto said.

"Then how did you beat Zabuza?" Haku asked.

"I may only be ranked a genin, but my skill far exceed that. I have been hiding my skills from my village for years. Like I said they hate me, so I acted for many years like a weak idiot. Only when we begun this mission did I actually start acting like myself. This was because if I showed my real power many would have called for my death as I was too strong for my own good and would take revenge of all them. Anyways, so my genin team was on our way here when we ran into the Demom Brothers. That put our mission at the rank of at least B and likely to go up if there was another opponent, which there was, Zabuza. My jonin instructor decided to drop the mission, feeling that it was to much risk for a new genin team-" Haku interrupted him.

"New genin team?" she asked.

"Yes, I am only twelve years old." He stated and Haku went wide eyed, "Well technically. I have only been alive for twelve years, but due to certain… circumstances surrounding me, I have aged faster and am now around the age of eighteen, both physically and mentally." To which Haku nodded. "How old are you?"

"I'm fifteen. What is this thing that people fear and hate about you?" she asked.

"(Sigh) I don't feel comfortable talking about that, I'm sorry. Anyways, back to the story. My jonin sensei decided to drop the mission. I refused because I wanted to help the people of Wave Country so I went on while they went back." Haku gave him a suspicious look, "Ok, there was a confrontation and I forced my sensei to back down. Anyways then me and Tazuna came here I caught you and killed Zabuza. This morning I was informed by one of my few friends, via summon, that I have been made a B-rank missing-nin. That is why I am going to be traveling for now." He explained.

"Won't they send hunter-nin after you?" she asked.

"I doubt it. I'm sure the Hokage with stop them from going that far. There are some special circumstances involving me that only the Hokage knows about and because of that I'm sure he would sent anyone after me. Did you not notice that I'm not wearing my Hitai-ate?" Naruto replied with a little laugh.

"Well… I…" she stuttered and Naruto's laughter increased. Haku just pouted at his teasing.

As his laughter calmed down, Naruto took on a serious attitude. "Now that all of that is out of the way, there is some important things we need to go over. I'm sure that Gato is going to find out that Zabuza failed soon and is going to try something again. Are you going to help me?"

Without think Haku exclaimed, "Of course Naruto-sama!"

'I'll work on getting here to stop calling me that later.' "Great!" Naruto said with a grin. "Then I'm going to need to know what you are capable of, and then I can get down to helping you improve." And without second thought lunged at Haku.

Three days later, in a large beach side mansion a meeting was taking place. "So it appears Zabuza has gone missing huh?" a short man this a cane asked from behind a large wooded desk.

"That's how it appears Gato. While observing from the mainland we noticed a large amount of workers, upwards of five hundred-" A man with bright red hair stated. He wore navy blue pants and a black shirt, over which was a black flack jacket with a large red swirl on the back. On his forehead was a Hitai-ate with the same swirl.

"Five hundred! How are there so many workers. Those people are much to spineless to suddenly start working in such numbers!" Gato exclaimed.

"From what we observed most of them were just clones and only about twenty were individual people. This does worry me. If there is someone there capable of creating that many clones and is helping them then it could be a threat to us." The man stated.

"Do you think that he killed Zabuza?" Gato asked, hoping that he wasn't going to have to pay the swordsman.

"I'm not sure. We spotted this stranger talking to that girl that was always following Zabuza around, so it is possible that he is still alive, though I don't think he is on their side. From our informant in Konoha, there was supposed to be a genin team protecting the bridge builder while he completed the bridge. They returned prematurely, but were missing a member. That member, a boy named Naruto, is now a missing-nin in their bingo book, supposedly for abandoning a mission. I would say that this unknown man is him, but the stranger doesn't fit our description. Anyways, now that Konoha is out of the way I can send my own men in to finish the job." The man stated to the crime boss.

"Great, but I must ask, how long until the bridge is completed? And what is your plan?" questioned Gato.

"If this stranger continues to supply Wave with this massive amount of workers, they should be done in a week." This left Gato gaping. "I know serious isn't it. As for a plan I'm not sure, because we have no information on this stranger, I think that it would be best to send a lot of forces incase this stranger ends up being strong."

"We could let them finish it, then kill the workers, bridge builder, and this stranger. Followed by just destroying the thing." Gato added.

"Hmmm. Very well. This is what we will do. When they complete the bridge, you will have a large force of your thugs storm it from the mainland. If the stranger is able to stop all your thugs, then I will have a squad waiting on standby to finish him off and blow the bridge. How's that?" The man asked, while Gato entered a thinking pose.

When he was done pondering he finished with an wicked grin, "Very well. So you will take care of the demolition?" he received a nod. "I will be personally leading three hundred of my best men."

"Um, why are you going to be going? It could be dangerous." The man asked.

"I want to see the looks of despair on their faces when they realize that all their effort has been for nothing." Gato replied with a sadistic grin on his face.

"Very well, I will be back in a five days with the squad that will be providing back up for you." The man said as he turned and started towards the door.

"Wait, what kind of squad are you going to sent?" Gato yelled.

"I will be leading it myself. Other than that it will consist of three chunin." The man stated and closest the door leaving the midget crime lord all alone.

A week later Naruto and Haku were observing the workers on the bridge completing the last of the bridge. Since they had gotten so close to completing the bridge, many more people showed up to help with the construction. The original twenty workers had swelled to over eighty.

They had seemed to be in high spirits since it was the last day of construction and everyone was excited and hopeful. Being the last day of construction, Tazuna had asked Naruto to not create any clones today, to allow the people of Wave Country finish _their_ bridge.

Naruto had been fine with it. That least this way he wouldn't wouldn't end up with a headache from all the clones. And had come in his full outfit, minus Hitai-ate.

In the time since they started training a week ago, Naruto had been helping Haku along. He was utterly stupefied when he had found out about Zabuza's training method and how insanely ineffective they were. He had taught Haku absolutely no taijutsu or genjutsu. Instead he had focused solely on her speed, ninjutsu and chakra control, leaving her other area's lacking. About the only other thing he had taught her, was how to wield his giant sword, which Haku informed Naruto is called Kubikiribocho, but due to her lack of strength training, wasn't able to utilize it in real battle. Though this had been useful as Haku was able to teach him had she knew about wielding the blade.

To help her catch up in her various area, Naruto began teaching her the basic taijutsu style from the academy in Konoha. While it was worthless in battle, it provided a solid base for more advanced styles of taijutsu. He had also placed a resistance seal on her to help her increase her strength and chakra reserves. Resistance seals work by making it more difficult to move all the muscles of ones body and forcing them to use chakra to force their movements along with their muscles. This increased muscle mass and chakra reserves. He told her to use the seal only when training, else it would stunt her growth and ultimately be counter productive.

Naruto was brought out of his thought as a cheer developed through the crowd of workers as the last brick was placed down. Smiling, Naruto watched as they started shaking hands and celebrating amongst themselves.

"Well well well. It looks like you finished." A short man said as he walked out of the woods on the other side of the bridge. Behind him was an army of thugs and mercenaries. As he walked forward, and onto he bridge, all the workers were backing away. "What's wrong, you just completed this glorious bridge, and yet you all look like you've seen a ghost."

"Gato!" Tazuna yelled at the man, as venom dripped from his voice.

"Ah, I love it when people know my name." Gato said as he continued forward. "Now then Who is going to be the hero this time. Last time it was that simple fisherman. I really put him in his place." The short mobster said with a laugh.

"Everyone leave now, I'll take care of this little man." Naruto shouted. The workers didn't hesitate and just ran off down the bridge. Looking back, he noticed, that Tazuna and Haku were the only ones left. "Both of you to, back away, I don't want you to be caught in the technique I'm about to do." Naruto stated and began running through hand seals as the short man and his army continued to come closer.

"Why are you even helping them, surely you realize that they can't pay you anything. Even with this bridge done, its going to take years for the economy to develop, and with a definite lack of investors, that might not even be possible. Help me on the other hand and I will make yo-" Gato's speech was interrupted by Naruto when they were only ten feet away.

"I want this country to be free!" Naruto shouted and landed on the last seal in the sequence, "Raiton: Denki Kairo!(Lightning Release: Electric Circuit )" Naruto shouted and instantly, lightning began cover his right arm. In a sudden pulse, the electricity created an arc between Naruto's arm and Gato. The moment it connected with the short man he was covered in a blue shroud of electricity and his screams began piecing the air. A second later, three more arcs formed between Gato and the three closest mercenaries and their screams joined their master's.

As Naruto continued to pump Chakra into the technique it continued to connect to more and more of the mercenaries, until every single one was caught in the massive spider web of electricity.

Watching from a safe distance, Tazuna, Haku, and the squad of shinobi in the trees, there to back up Gato watched with a mix of awe and horror. All of them had no doubt that this was going to leave a lot of dead bodies, but it looked so beautiful, that if it wasn't for the screaming deafening screams coming from everyone involved, minus Naruto, you could mistake it for some kind of circus act.

With one last pulse, from Naruto's arm, the arc between the blond and Gato disappeared. Slowly, the various other arcs also disappeared, leaving only fried bodies in its wake. All parties stood still and watched as the last of the arcs ran their course. Leaving the previously loud, scream infested area completely silent.

"You can come out now!" Naruto shouted, breaking that silence.

When they heard this the shinobi squad in the trees were startled. "There's no way he is talking to us." One of the chunin wispered.

"Are you kidding, did you not just see that attack. He must be really strong." The second replied.

"Were you even paying attention? All those mercenaries had plenty of time to clear away from Gato. If they had some shinobi training, they would have noticed what was going on and escaped." The red headed man replied.

"Hey, I'm talking to you guys in the trees!" Naruto shouted.

The squad of shinobi proceeded to jump down onto the ground in front of the bridge, though, they didn't actually step on it.

"That was a very impressive technique you just used. I have never seen it before." The leader said.

"Thank you Uzu-san and I hope that you haven't seen it anywhere, that's the first time I have actually used it in combat since I created it." Naruto replied.

"You are very well informed to know that we are from Uzushiogakure. May I ask how you know. We have been trying to stay below the radar." The lead Uzu-nin asked.

"Like you said I am well informed. Now may I ask what your business here is?" the blond asked.

"To destroy this bridge of course. Now I'm sorry to do this but, Boom." He said as he formed a single hands seal. A moment later the three on the bridge were knocked off their feet as the entire bridge was rocked by a massive explosion from Wave country all the way to the main land. The part of the bridge that had just been finished by the workers of Wave suddenly gave out and fell into the ocean below, taking quite a few of the thug's bodies with it. As the swaying of the bridge stopped Naruto, Haku and Tazuna all stood up, though the later two had confused looks.

"What happened the entire bridge was supposed to be destroyed!" one of the uzu chunin yelled. Meanwhile the leader walked to the side and looked down the length of the bridge. He arrived just in time to see a massive seal array on the rest of the bridge disappear.

At this his eyes went wide, as Uzushiogakure was supposed to be the world leaders on the art of sealing. He himself being one of the leading authorities on the art there. Yet the entire time when they had been placing the explosive tags the night before, he had not noticed anything out of the ordinary.

"I see you noticed my addition to the bridge. What do you think?" Naruto asked.

"Amazing. To be able to create a seal that could absorb that much energy being released at the same time, and over such a large distance is extraordinary, and yet only a master could accomplish this feat. And all the masters in this craft are well know, yet I don't know who you are. Mind enlightening me?" the Uzu-nin asked.

"Sorry, but no can do. Now, are you going to fight or just leave?" Naruto asked.

"I'm sorry Naruto." The man said with a smile, "But I don't think we could win."

"Interesting, you must have a good informant in Konoha to have that kind of info. Well you know my name, could I know be enlightened as to yours?" Naruto commented.

"But of course, my name is Uzumaki Nasta. It is a pleasure to meet you, now we must be off." Nasta stated, and with the flick of his wrist his group and him disappeared into the trees.

"Hmm, a good leader. Knows when its smart to back off." Naruto stated. Turning around, Naruto looked at the other two on the bridge.

"What the heck did they do to my bridge!" Tazuna asked frantically.

"Don't worry. Only the part that you were working on today was effected. I have been placing seals on the bridge after every work day to protect it from just this. I had yet to do so with the last section, but once you finish it again I will. Now get your men and finish this thing today. Haku, you are to look over the construction and protection Tazuna and his family from any more threats. I will contact you, via summon when I need you, so be ready." Naruto instructed. The whole time he was talking, Naruto had proceeded to cut off Gato's head and seal it away, along with his cane. As he finished, he began jumping through the trees after the Uzu-nin.

AN: Any and all comments will be acceptable. Tell me if you liked it or not and why. Also Gai was Naruto's taijutsu instructor, Anko was genjutsu, and the ninjutsu is currently a mystery. I have the next few chapters planned out, but if anyone has any suggestions I am all ears. I don't want to follow canon to much, and will try and have some original, or at least non canon chapters.


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